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Unit 13: Factors of Social Change

13.5 Explanations of Social Change Notes

One way of explaining social change is to show causal connections between two or more processes.
This may take the form of determinism or reductionism, both of which tend to explain social
change by reducing it to one supposed autonomous and all-determining causal process. A more
cautious assumption is that one process has relative causal priority, without implying that this process
is completely autonomous and all-determining. What follows are some of the processes thought to
contribute to social change.
Natural Environment
Changes in the natural environment may result from climatic variations, natural disasters, or the
spread of disease. For example, both worsening of climatic conditions and the Black Death epidemics
are thought to have contributed to the crisis of feudalism in 14th-century Europe. Changes in the
natural environment may be either independent of human social activities or caused by them.
Deforestation, erosion, and air pollution belong to the latter category, and they in turn may have far-
reaching social consequences.
Demographic Processes

Population growth and increasing population density represent demographic forms of social change.
Population growth may lead to geographic expansion of a society, military conflicts, and the
intermingling of cultures. Increasing population density may stimulate technological innovations,
which in turn may increase the division of labour, social differentiation, commercialization, and
urbanization. This sort of process occurred in western Europe from the 11th to the 13th century and
in England in the 18th century, where population growth spurred the Industrial Revolution. On the
other hand, population growth may contribute to economic stagnation and increasing poverty, as
may be witnessed in several Third World countries today.
Technological Innovations
Several theories of social evolution identify technological innovations as the most important
determinants of societal change. Such technological breakthroughs as the smelting of iron, the
introduction of the plow in agriculture, the invention of the steam engine, and the development of
the computer have had lasting social consequences.
Economic Processes

Technological changes are often considered in conjunction with economic processes. These include
the formation and extension of markets, modifications of property relations (such as the change from
feudal lord-peasant relations to contractual proprietor-tenant relations), and changes in the
organization of labour (such as the change from independent craftsmen to factories).
Historical materialism, as developed by Marx and Engels, is one of the more prominent theories that
gives priority to economic processes, but it is not the only one. Indeed, materialist theories have even
been developed in opposition to Marxism. One of these theories, the “logic of industrialization”
thesis by American scholar Clark Kerr and his colleagues, states that industrialization everywhere
has similar consequences, whether the property relations are called capitalist or communist.
Ideas
Other theories have stressed the significance of ideas as causes of social change. Comte’s law of three
stages is such a theory. Weber regarded religious ideas as important contributors to economic
development or stagnation; according to his controversial thesis, the individualistic ethic of
Christianity, and in particular Calvinism, partially explains the rise of the capitalist spirit, which led
to economic dynamism in the West.

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